The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between mother's separation anxiety and child attachment, tow important dimensions of mothers' psychological status among a variety of variables that having influence upon young children's deve...
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between mother's separation anxiety and child attachment, tow important dimensions of mothers' psychological status among a variety of variables that having influence upon young children's development, and young children's socioemotional development, and then present basic data on young children's healthy development. For this, following study questions were established:
Study question 1: 'what is the relationship between mother's separation anxiety and child attachment and young children's socioemotional development?'
Study question 2: 'what is the influence of mother's separation anxiety and child attachment upon young children's socioemotional development?'
Study subject were 270 young children in their 12~36 months of age and their mothers in Seoul. As for study tools, mother's separation anxiety was examined with the scale of Ahn Ji-yeong and Do Hyeon-sim (1998), that was adaptively modified the questions on 'mother's general separation anxiety', a portion of MSAS (maternal separation anxiety scale), developed by Hock (1989). Mother's child attachment was examined with the maternal attachment scale, developed by Hwang Hyeon-ju (2006). And young children's socioemotional development was looked into with teacher's rating scale for socioemotional development of 2 years old children, developed by Kim Ho-in (2010).
Study findings are as follows:
First, mother's separation anxiety and child attachment was related to young children's socioemotional development. Mother's separation anxiety had negatively correlated to young children's socioemotional development on the whole. In other words, mother's separation anxiety had significantly negative correlations with young children's 'basic emotion and social behavior' (r=-.248, p<.001), 'cognitive control' of self-control (r=-.148, p<.05), and 'social relations' (r=-.160, p<.01). Among the sub-variables of mother's child attachment, (1) 'positive emotion' had significantly positive correlations with such sub-variables of young children's socioemotional development as 'basic emotion and social behavior' (r=.364, p<.001), 'the conception of ego' (r=.573, p<.001), 'cognitive control' of self-control (r=.482, p<.001), 'emotional expression' of cognitive control (r=.368, p<.001) and 'social relations' (r=.445, p<.001); (2) 'contact pursuit' had significantly positive correlations with such sub-variables of young children's socioemotional development as 'basic emotion and social behavior' (r=.488, p<.001), 'the conception of ego' (r=.260, p<.001), 'cognitive control' of self-control (r=.186, p<.01), 'emotional expression' of cognitive control (r=.152, p<.05) and 'social relations' (r=.210, p<.001); (3) 'cohesion' had significantly positive correlations with such sub-variables of young children's socioemotional development as 'basic emotion and social behavior' (r=.352, p<.001), 'the conception of ego' (r=.208, p<.001), 'cognitive control' of self-control (r=.136, p<.05), and 'social relations' (r=.129, p<.05); and (4) 'indifference' had significantly negative correlations with such sub-variables of young children's socioemotional development as 'basic emotion and social behavior' (r=-.226, p<.001), 'the conception of ego' (r=-.313, p<.001), 'cognitive control' of self-control (r=-.374, p<.001), 'emotional expression' of cognitive control (r=-.375, p<.001 and 'social relations' (r=-.336, p<.001).
Second, mother's separation anxiety and child attachment had influence upon young children's socioemotional development. The explanatory power of mother's separation anxiety and child attachment for 'basic emotion and social behavior', a sub-variable of young children's socioemotional development, was 37.3% (F=17.202, p<.001); for 'the conception of ego' was 38.2% (F=17.824, p<.001); for 'cognitive control' of self-control was 33.4% (F=14.485, p<.001); for 'emotional expression' of self-control was 22.9% (F=8.586, p<.001); and for 'social relations' was 28.1% (F=11.288, p<.001).
Third, young children's socioemotional development was negatively influenced by mother's separation anxiety, whereas it was positively influenced by such sub-variables of mother's child attachment as positive emotion, contact pursuit and cohesion. In other words, mother's separation anxiety is lower and mother's positive emotion and expectation for young children are higher, young children's socioemotional development is higher.
As study findings show, mother's separation anxiety and child attachment have significant correlations with young children's socioemotional development. In other words, mother's separation anxiety and child attachment are negatively correlated to young children's 'basic emotion and social behavior', 'cognitive control of self-control', 'emotional expression' and 'social relations'. In the relationship between mother's separation anxiety and young children's socioemotional development, mother's separation anxiety can be an influential factor upon children's development or adaptation, and have influence upon mother's behavior itself as well.
Therefore, as for the influence of mother's separation anxiety and child attachment upon young children's socioemotional development, mother's separation anxiety is higher, young children's socioemotional development seems to be lower. In addition, mother's separation anxiety and child attachment are closely related to young children's socioemotional development and seems to be important influential factors upon it. When mother's separation anxiety is lower and she forms positive attachment with her children, children's socioemotional development improves.